Meeting covers early childhood education, consolidation

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A polite discussion among Kansas State Board of Education members and 15 Kansas legislators Wednesday ran the gamut from state funding and a new high school assessment to an effort to establish a statewide early childhood program and district consolidation.

“I think this has been a very good discussion this afternoon,” board of education chairwoman Jana Shaver said at the conclusion of the meeting. “I feel this has been very productive. I hope you do, too. Hopefully, we can do this again.”

Shaver’s statements were followed by a round of applause.

Throughout the two and one-half hour discussion, board members and legislators alike made concerted efforts to show patience and respect — even backtracking and clarifying statements to avoid offense — despite funding issues and curriculum matters that have caused a rift between the elected bodies in the past few months.

School funding

Toward that end, multiple legislators expressed an interest in evaluating whether state money is spent efficiently — from consolidating districts to rewarding teachers for student growth.

Sen. Jeff Melcher, R-Leawood, was concerned none of the board’s goals seemed to address growing education spending despite the state’s stagnate student testing results. He suggested developing a system to reward teachers based on the outcome of their students.

“Having a compensation system that rewards performance will attract and retain high performing individuals,” Melcher clarified when challenged on the issue. “It’s a way to attract and retain talent. It’s not there as an incentive to change someone’s behavior.”

Sally Cauble, vice chairwoman of the state education board, indicated the board had developed an evaluation tool and many districts throughout the state already had or were working to update their teacher evaluation processes.

Shaver argued that all the board’s goals were directed at bending the curve of student achievement.

After more back-and-forth on the issue, first-term board member Jim McNiece tried to steer the conversation back to the board’s goals.

“Everything we did on our goals and strategic plan is designed to improve student achievement,” McNiece said. “Our role is to put the best plan together to create the best opportunity for student achievement. Your job, as I see it, is to question us, challenge us, argue with us, but ultimately it’s the funding.”

Melcher countered, saying he didn’t intend to imply the education board had any responsibility to dole out funding.

“In light of all of the discussion regarding funding, I wanted to address what’s being done to effectively spend the money you receive,” he said.

College readiness assessment

The premise for Tuesday’s discussion were two presentations detailing the education board’s goals and the work of the Kansas State Department of Education to meet them.

Among them were the efforts to prepare high school students for college and career. The state board of education is switching to new assessments as early as Spring 2015, said education Commissioner Diane DeBacker. The new assessments will involve more narrative responses, which makes them more costly than the current multiple-choice tests, she said.

The new tests are estimated to cost an additional $1.6 million from the state. That is in addition to the $4.5 million that assessments currently cost, though only $1 million of that comes from state funds, said Brad Neuenswander, deputy education commissioner. Currently, he said, Kansas is the second-lowest state in the nation when it comes to what it spends on assessments.

Funding for the new assessment likely will have to come in the form of a special appropriation of state monies, DeBacker said.

“That probably is wishful thinking at this point,” she said. “I don’t know how else to say it.”

Early childhood standards

Another board objective is to establish a universal early childhood education standard across the state. The concept seemed to have support among the legislators present, but it raised a few eyebrows, particularly from Rep. Jerry Lunn, R-Overland Park.

While supportive of early childhood education, Lunn said, he was concerned the board’s efforts might step on the toes of existing private and nonprofit entities. It also had the potential to “evolve into an enormous expense,” he said.

DeBacker explained the goal was set in March, so the board hadn’t yet had an opportunity to discuss finances and partnerships with existing programs. However, she said, the initiative was born from a desire to bolster programs and coordinate efforts, not detract from them.

Consolidation

Consolidating districts — referred multiple times during the meeting as “the dirty c-word” — likely would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars, education officials and legislators agreed. But no one was willing to be the one to officially introduce the idea.

“Obviously, we need to consolidate some school districts,” said Rep. John Bradford, R-Lansing.

Bradford represents Leavenworth County which, he said, has seven school districts alone.

“I personally think it’s absurd,” he said.

However, Bradford said, no consolidation bill stood a chance of passing the Kansas Legislature, and any legislator who introduced it would commit “political suicide.”

“I’m not going to offer it,” he said. “And the school board can’t do it. Obviously, it’s not going to get done. But it is a topic that needs to be brought up, and it needs a rational solution.”

No such solutions were offered Tuesday — other than noting local school districts had that power as well — but Cauble indicated school districts were consolidating on their own.

“There is some slow progress happening across the state in that,” she said, referencing the fact that she knew of at least two or three consolidations in her area. “I don’t want to leave you with idea there isn’t anything happening.”

Another way to consolidate, Lunn offered, was to reduce the number of administrative positions in schools.

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but act interested in the state's schools. I bet these Legislators are looking for a way to get school's staff to say they really do not need more money. "multiple legislators expressed an interest in evaluating whether state money is spent efficiently" Politicians are so used to lying they believe everyone else is lying too.

If the Kansas Supreme Court tells legislators to carry out their constitutional duty and provide greater funding for K-12 education (see Gavel Grab for background), and the legislature refuses, it could be a recipe for “disaster,” a Wichita Eagle editorial warns.

A potential showdown also has implications for defenders of fair and impartial courts, according to the editorial. This year, the Kansas legislature revised the way state Court of Appeals judges are chosen to give more power to the governor and to require state Senate confirmation; a similar effort to abandon a merit-based selection process for the state Supreme Court is expected next year.

“Imagine Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders denouncing and then defying the court, and further undermining its authority with legislation to change how justices are chosen, when they must retire and how much say courts have over school finance and other issues,” the editorial says.

This and other implications of a showdown — including a possible school shutdown — “would be a disaster for Kansas and potentially Brownback, who is up for re-election next year,” it adds.